Review of ‘Rivers of London’ by Ben Aaronovitch

This novel was sitting on my shelf for ages before I finally decided to read it. Rivers of London (published as Midnight Riot in the US) is an appealing mix of modern police procedural, urban fantasy and historical fiction. It’s narrated by PC Peter Grant of the Metropolitan Police, who becomes an apprentice wizard while investigating a series of crimes in which random people turn violent due to a supernatural entity. He becomes drawn into a conflict between the god and goddess of the Thames, although thinking about it now, I can’t quite understand what this aspect of the plot had to do with the other.

Generally I liked this book, not for the crime element, which was a bit gory, but for the exploration of London’s history, architecture and multicultural character. The author clearly has a deep knowledge and love for London. I felt that the description of buildings sometimes went too far, but take these out and the book would be much reduced. The writing style was quite amusing and didn’t take itself too seriously. I didn’t like the main character Grant very much but that was OK. This is a small criticism but Dr Polidori, who is mentioned several times, was occasionally misspelt as Polidari. I’m not interested in reading the rest of the series but I can understand why they are so popular.

First published by Gollancz, 2011.